Bye Bye Happiness
by Severen
Summary: The Lone Wanderer drops by Tenpenny Tower for rest and to visit a friend. What will she do when she finds out her friend is dead? Oneshot *A reupload of story I wrote early on with some slight improvements. Rated M for blood and language.*


She was tired, and pissed and a lot of other things right now. Ellen Barker made her way across the dry,hot ground of The Capital Wasteland in her merc adventurer outfit, trying her best not to think about water or any liquids of any kind. Her throat was so dry right now and she had finished her last purified water just a minute ago. She would still have another one,she thought with irritation, if her damn good spirit hadn't made her give it to that bum in front of Megaton. Sometimes, she thought, she just wanted to put those kind of people out of their misery. She shook her head quickly as if getting a radroach off her head. A radroach that made her think about doing very bad things.

Another hazard of the Capital Wasteland, losing yourself.

She ran her hand through her short brown hair and then looked at her PipBoy to see what time it was. 1:45 PM. Where's a girl to go at 1:45 PM in this area of the Wastes? She moved the PipBoy to the map to see what was around, Tenpenny Tower seemed the forward she went, to a place that at this moment seemed like paradise.

"If Charon were here he could carry me." She said hoarsely and chuckled a bit before breaking out into a coughing had told him to stay in Underworld for a while, since she wanted some alone time at the Megaton house. She had just gotten some ridiculous looking heart-shaped bed from Moira. It may have looked stupid but, boy was it comfy.

A few yards later and she spotted it, "Holy shit, Tenpenny Tower. Thank you God!"

"Hmm," started Roy Philips," that smoothskin is headed over here, Bessie." He had spotted her from the balcony of his new suite.

"Think she'll be a problem, Roy?"

He turned to face her."I doubt it, but you never know with them, tell Michael about her, and wait with him downstairs, keep cool when she comes in." He turned his attention once again on the smoothskin, not quite sure how she would react to what was in the basement.

"Ok, sounds good, we'll keep an eye on her." She walked away leaving Roy to watch their visitor make her way to the gate.

She made her to the gate smiling. She was always excited when coming back to Tenpenny Tower, over the past couple of weeks she had become good friends with Herbert "Daring" Dashwood. His stories never failed to brighten up a bad day.

She pushed the button on the intercom expecting a voice to ask who it was, instead the gate just opened surprising her.

"Well, that's new."

She made her way inside expecting to see a guard to her left, but once again she was surprised. There was no one there, she furrowed her brow slightly confused. It took her mind off her horrid thirst.

"All right, what the hell?" She pulled out her rifle but she was tired, she let it drop to her side as she made her way to the door. She raised the gun up slowly, opening the door while doing so.

The inside of Tenpenny Tower was no different; the music was still playing, there was no blood on the floor, no mangled bodies that she could see. Everything was fine but, there were no people.

She looked down for moment, trying to think, but it was so hard."Hey smoothskin!" That snapped her back in to reality and she brought the rifle up and aimed. "Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!" She heard the voice say, then realizing who it was she brought the rifle down, sighing with relief.

"Shit Michael! I almost killed you. Oh God." She strained and dropped the rifle putting her face in her hands.

"Whoa, Ellen are you ok? You don't look too good." She really didn't, she almost looked like she was gonna keel over. Slowly he moved forward and picked up her rifle.

"Shit! I'm fine, Michael. Just tired, thirsty, and I got a monstrous headache." She looked up and saw him with her rifle."Oh fuck, Michael I'm sorry, I'm on edge. Where the fuck is everyone?"

"Everything ok, Michael?" It was Bessie with a pistol in her hand.

"Everything's fine,Bessie just go back to the clothes, I'll take care of her. She ain't feeling too good."

"Oh! Well that's too bad, you ok sweetie?" She asked with zero concern.

Ellen struggled a bit to say something, "Uhh, I'll be fine as soon as I get some water, Bessie. Thank you." She said the last part in a way that sound more like,'fuck you.'

"Come on," started Michael leading her to the bar," lets get you that water."

She made her way to the bar, completely forgetting Michael had her rifle, as soon as she sat down the purified water was there in front of her waiting to be drunk. She lifted the bottle towards her and as soon as the bottle touched her lips she couldn't help herself, she downed it in seconds and in those seconds she felt much better. And yet she felt an uneasiness. Where were the rest of the residents? Was Herbert ok? If they were dead, where were the bodies?

"Hey, Michael what's going on? Where is everyone?" She asked looking right at him.

"Well uh," he started with an ugly smile," there were some issues and some of the tenants were um, evicted."

"Evicted? What do you mean evicted? You kicked them all out?" She had not worked her ass off convincing Tenpenny to let the ghouls stay only to have them kick everyone else out!

"Well you should talk to Roy about it, he can explain everything." He said taking a drink of whiskey.

"Well alright, I'm gonna go talk to him, thanks for the water, Michael." She said while walking off. He didn't say anything back, he just waved her off casually, not really concerned.

Ellen hurried past the clothing section hoping not to catch Bessie's eye, for some reason Bessie was being a little hostile with her and not even trying to hide it. What had she done? She got the fascists to let the ghouls into Tenpenny Tower, given them a nice place to sleep, and treated them like human beings. So what was her deal?

She left her hunting rifle with Michael on the bar, she figured it would be safe there for now, and got to the elevator quickly. She called it down, crossing her arms and waiting impatiently for it to get there. Finally after what seemed like an eternity, it got there, then after another one she got to the top.

She made her way out taking slow steps, hoping to catch another non-ghoul face. Even with all the good things she had done for them and how much respect she had for them, being in an enclosed space with three of them by herself had her at least a little tense. She made her way to Tenpenny's room, not really expecting to find him there, after all Michael had said all the non-ghouls were gone.

Suddenly another ghoul face appeared, that of Roy Philips, "Hey there, smoothskin! Long time no see." Flashing a weird gapped toothy grin.

"Cut the shit, Roy," started Ellen sternly," where are all the non-ghoul residents?"

"No interest in small-talk these days, huh?" He was evading the question.

"Thats funny coming from the guy who a few weeks ago not only had no interest in small talk, only interest in killing everyone in Tenpenny Tower."

"All right, all right! Shit smoothskin!" He continued grinning then broke out into a small chuckle. "About where everyone is, there was a little uh...problem with all the tenants and I had to uh," he chuckled again," take out the trash."

Ellen knew what she had just heard but refused to believe it, "What do you mean by that, Roy?" She asked with no fear or shock.

He chuckled once again," Why don't you check the basement and see what I mean?"

She nodded and walked briskly to the elevator, knowing what she would find but hoping she wouldn't find a certain body among the others.

She got to the lobby floor, and quickly made her way out not noticing Bessie walking past her to the elevator. She got to the door to the basement and stopped for a moment, pondering about whether or not to open it.

"Fuck it." She opened it and immediately saw what Roy was talking about.

She spotted two bodies, all mangled and torn up and their clothes missing. They had taken everything from them, then she followed a small blood trail which led around a shelf and found a pile of more mangled,torn up and naked bodies. She turned around took a deep breath,"Please don't let Herbert be here."

She turned around and started looking through the pile finding, Allistair Tenpenny, a few other residents she didn't recognize, and the doctor. She moved the bodies around a little more ignoring all the blood and dismembered body parts. The stench however was horrible. She had been in the Wasteland for a while now and still, she could not get used to the smell of dead bodies.

Then she spotted his face. "Oh no." She said it softly before pulling the body out away from the others. She leaned in close to make sure it was him. It was, Herbert "Daring" Dashwood. "Godammit."

She was furious and in pain, everything she had done, everything she had gone through to let the ghouls in and this is what it got her. One of her newest best friends was dead. She held back tears. Like the others they took all his clothes, and mementos he had on him. Now he was just a rotting corpse in a big pile of several rotting corpses. Not being able to look at him anymore she turned around and walked out.

She spotted Michael walking back to the bar, in her anger and agony she made her way over there quickly. "Hey Michael!"

He turned around at the bar, "Hey what's going on?" He asked before taking another drink.

"You tell me!" She said furiously," Why the fuck did you kill all those people and dump them in the basement?"

"Well," he started before putting his half empty bottle down,"some of them started complaining so Roy decided it would be a good idea to get rid of the fascists." He said calmly.

"Not all of them were like that!" Her fists were clenched and her eyes burned with intensity. "Tenpenny I understand. But why the doctor? Why Herbert!"

"Hey you-," he started while reaching for his pistol, then stopped looking somewhat confused," who the fuck was Herbert?"

The instant he said that all she saw was red, and in a quick fluid motion grabbed the bottle on the bar, broke it and stabbed him in the face, avoiding his helmet. He released a somewhat shrill and scared scream moving his hands to were the bottle now was. Ellen took this time to get the rifle off the bar and when he removed the bottle and all the blood poured out, she hit him with the butt of the rifle knocking him down.

"Ow! Aghh!" He yelled and squirmed and made strange gurgling noises. Ellen quickly put a stop to this with a well aimed .32 round to where his face had been.

"Fuck!" She was now furious with herself, now Roy and Bessie were going to come after her.

She aimed her rifle looking for Bessie. Then she thought for a minute, if Bessie were down here, then she would have come out by now. She thought about what to do now; go in the elevator or take the stairs? Both. She pushed the button for the top floor but got out and headed to the stairs. Hoping she could get the jump on them both at once.

She opened the door cautiously and with her rifle aimed. She scanned all around and made her way up the stairs. She started to jog up them hoping to catch up with the elevator. She made her way up faster and broke out in a sweat. Her thirst was coming back and she didn't have any water.

She made it to the top floor and as soon as she opened the door she was greeted with a kick to the chest. It was Bessie and she now had her pistol aimed at Chloe's head. Using her rifle she knocked the gun out of her hand and it went down the stairs. Bessie charged at Ellen with her teeth bared grabbing the rifle and struggling to get it away from The Wanderer. In the struggle they managed to drop it down past all the stairs and to the bottom floor. Ellen punched Bessie in the stomach then tackled her, tumbling down the stairs.

Bessie ended up on top of Ellen and started choking her," You fucking smoothskin whore, I should have shot you when you first got here!" Ellen struggled to get her off, and while moving around spotted Bessie's pistol, she then grabbed one of the ghoul's fingers and bent it back breaking it.

Bessied screamed in agony while Ellen finally managed to get her off, and while she was down, kick her. Ellen made her way to the pistol, but once she got there Bessie had tackled her against a wall, she had the gun now it was just a matter of aiming and firing.

"You little bitch! You broke my fucking finger!" She yelled raspily at Ellen.

Ellen stepped on her foot and then cold cocked her with the gun stunning the ghoul a bit. Then hooked her left arm and with her free hand lifted the gun, "That was the point, Bessie!" She aimed the gun at her shoulder and fired, knocking Bessie back, then fired another round at her stomach. Bessie clung on to the stairs railing, then slumped down leaning against it. Ellen aimed and before Bessie could say another word, fired five more rounds killing her.

She didn't say anything. She just turned and made her way back up the stairs.

Finally she made her way through the door, looking around for Roy. She turned a corner saw the door to Tenpenny's old room. She opened the door slowly looking around, Roy was nowhere to be seen. She made her way into Tenpenny's room. She looked around a little spotted some books she had seen before and an old hammer. She examined it for a bit and picked it up. Then Roy appeared from behind and began to choke her with his Chinese assaullt rifle.

The metal was cold and painful on her throat already she could feel herself passing out. She dropped her pistol when Roy moved her violently to the side but held on to the hammer. He growled vicously, while he choked her life out,.

"You killed my only two friends in the world, you cunt! Now you're gonna fucking pay!" He once again twisted the rifle a little more careful not to break her neck. He wanted her to die slow.

She was dying she knew it, unless she did something fast."The hammer," she thought, "you have the fucking hammer!" But she couldn't lift her arm enough to do anything with it. She closed her eyes and let tears fall from them but not making any noise. She thought of Amata and Dad. And Dogmeat.

"No dammit," she said hoarsely but with strength. "Not now."

And with all the strength she could muster she turned that hammer around and stabbed Roy in the eye with it.

"Agh! Godammit you crazy bitch!" He said dropping his chinese assault rifle holding his empty socket where his eye used to be.

Ellen put a hand to her throat and coughed, spitting out some blood. She picked up the rifle with her free hand. And without so much as a second thought or even a first, she shot him once in the gut. He fell to the floor and moaned in agony. One hand over his now empty eye socket and the other over the bullet wound on his stomach. She dropped the rifle and coughed a few more times, she stood there for a moment trying to recover somewhat. She spotted the hammer again on the floor while bent over and coughing. She cleared her throat and picked it up. She looked over at Roy and saw him trying to crawl away. She made her way towards him, "Ready when you are, Roy." She said hoarsely.

She turned him over and got down on her knees by his left side as she brought the hammer down on his face. Once. Twice. Again and again and again. The hammer kept coming down with a sickening wet crunch. Blood was getting everywhere and all over her. The hammer kept getting stuck and she kept putting her hand on where his forehead once was to pull it out. Finally after about a minute of this she got up and dropped the hammer. All that was left Roy was a body minus a face and most of the head. She put her hand against the wall to support herself to no avail, she collapsed against it and let herself slide down into a sitting position with her legs outstretched and her hands on her lap.

She buried her face in her hands and ran them through her hair, gasping and breathing heavily. Then she started to whimper and that whimper slowly turned into a loud groaning. She started to rock back and forth before finally letting out a loud blood curdling and almost inhuman scream.

"Hello there, kiddies! This is Three-Dog! Bow-wow! Your voice in the darkness! Or at least, the radiation. Time for some news, children!" Blared out the now famous or infamous, depending on who you asked, voice of Galaxy News Radio. "Okay, children, today I got a couple of crazy stories some of you are going to love and some of you are going to hate! I'm pretty sure most of you already know this first story! According to reports the now famous Tenpenny Tower is no more. A couple of good friends of mine have reported that the tower has been completely and utterly burned to the ground! What the hell happened out there? I can already hear some of you now. 'But Three-Dog, master of all you survey and jockey of discs, everybody knew that! Who didn't see the flames and smoke in every direction?!' I know children I know! Even though yours truly couldn't see it, I damn sure smelled it along with seeing the ashes float in my direction. But here's where it gets crazier. According to some of these same reports, a Lone figure was seen walking away from the towering inferno. I think you all know where this is going, children. That figure has been claimed, by some, to be the one and only Lone Wanderer. AKA That swell kid from Vault 101. If it's true, Three-Dog must ask once again. What the hell is going out there? Wasn't there just truce declared..."

Back in Megaton, several people at the bar turned and looked at The Lone Wanderer, who herself was sitting on a stool and finishing up a beer. Gob walked up to his friend,"Is it true? Did you do it?"

She didn't reply, she just took a drag of her cigarette and then put it out on the bar.


End file.
